While the SHOT Show hasn’t officially started yet, the ITS Crew spent today covering the Bass Pro Media Day at the Range and the Aimpoint MIL/LEO Range Day.

Both events offered a tremendous opportunity to not only get hands on with some of the newest weapons available, but to also fire them. Below is a selection of the best of what we saw today and a collection of all our images.

As a reminder, be sure to follow our tweets on Twitter for the most timely updates from the SHOT Show this week (there are photos we’ll attach there too) as well as Facebook and right here at ITS Tactical!

Media Day Highlights

While the Bass Pro Media Day at the Range was mostly comprised of weapons manufacturers that were offering a chance to shoot their wares, there were also a handful of other companies showing their wares.

While standing in line to check in and get our badges, we looked up and saw the plane in the photo above dragging a welcome message banner and couldn’t help from laughing at the misspelled message. As if the attending media isn’t going to mention that one… pretty humorous!

BAE Systems

One of the first stops we made was by the BAE Systems booth where we were really drawn to their new ECMPV (Enhanced Concealable Military Protective Vest)

What we really liked about the ECMPV was the elastic cummerbund with eight integrated pouches which can be used to mags, comms and other items as well. The cummerbund is also interchangeable with others in their Eclipse lineup.

XS Sight Systems

XS had a nice offshoot from their Paul Howe developed GAT (Glass Assault Tool) designed to fit the bezel of the Surefire X300/400 Weapon Light called the WL GAT.

It’s still in development currently and will only be available for Military and Law Enforcement.

Justin from XS recently added some commentary on our Facebook page for the WL GAT that contains some great insight into the product.

H&K

The MR556 is the civilian version of the 416 and now shipping to dealers this week. We were able to get some trigger time with the MR556 and definitely liked how it shot, which was just as smooth as the 416.

Some notable features were the self-retaining extractor pin and how cool to the touch the bolt was after immediately removing at firing multiple rounds.

ATI

American Tactical Imports had a new compact .45 called the Fat Boy that utilized a double stack magazine that held 12 rounds and was a joy to shoot.

They had just received it back from the ATF who had reassuringly put it through the ringer. Their .410 AR upper was also really cool!

Other Highlights

Some other highlights included Bryan getting choked out by The Gunny, seeing Rachel Dratch from SNL shoot a gun for the first time at the Aimpoint booth (surrounded by her entourage with no less than three high-end video cameras running) and of course getting some great SHOT Show swag for upcoming giveaways on ITS Tactical!

Aimpoint Range Day

Out of respect to the organizers of the Aimpoint MIL/LEO Range Day there won’t be much in the way of photos and coverage from that event, but we will say that if it becomes a regular annual event we’d highly suggest attending!

A special thank you to a Texas company that’s near to our hearts; LaRue Tactical was there providing free food, drinks and their famous Dillo Dust. We had a great time shooting some weapons we don’t normally get the chance to fire everyday like the Mk43 and an M203 Grenade Launcher from LMT.

Thanks for checking out our Media Day coverage and be sure to head back tomorrow for the first day of the 2011 SHOT Show!!

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